Cynthrellia Anna "Cindy" Martius is a Mosquatlon heroine in Stationery Voyagers. Her debut episode is "Too Soon For Home", the fourth episode of season three. After a brief night of being coaxed back to health by Liquidon Ethereteel, the two forge a relationship. Liquidon offers her a satellite phone, and their communication back and forth leads to them falling in love when the realize the common ground they have.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Cindy was born as Cynthrellia Anna Martius in the spring in Bulgadia, around 300 years before the Voyagers first landed on Mantith. (299 BVL) This was also approximately 1,676 years after the birth of Minshus, though the Stationery worlds were culturally evolving at significantly faster rates than the time period would suggest. Young Mosquatlons have limited tolerance to Inktacto's light, allowing them to be at the surface in daylight for a very short time. Therefore, Cindy grew to be permanently nocturnal when she reached puberty at the age of 140.

Her mother, Nadalina Martius, was an accountant who helped in the evenings with financing concerning the Rilna Monastery undergoing some reconstruction efforts. Her father, Herephin, was involved in actual monastery construction. It was around the time that Cindy turned 163 that her sister Sylvia was born. The family was thankful that their construction work on the monastery was finished; but fearful that there would be political unrest from their own number below the surface. In order to work with Bulgadian monks on the surface, Herephin worked hard to disguise the fact that he was a Mosquatlon. Since misinformation about Mosquatlons was beginning to spread on the surface, revelation of someone being one was perfect grounds for them to be confused with various vampire legends. The Martius family feared what would happen if surface monks suspected Herephin of being a vampire. However, the Martius family had bigger problems on their hands.

Varikton's revolution

The rightful ruler to succeed over the Mosquatlon Underground was a certain Mauvio Polygluss, whose name was appropriate to his hair color: "He of Mockingbird hair." Word got around that he owed a major debt to an Aviatet, a fact he liked to deny. Mauvio's father died after he accidentally tripped a wire, setting off a chain reaction which lead to an anvil falling on the old man. Mauvio even took gunpowder to the scene to incinerate any remaining evidence of his embarrassing mistake, and killed all witnesses. Alas, he was sent into exile with some of his cronies to plot his eventual takeover.

An evil tyrant named Varikton Vanqushun claimed the Mosquatlon Underground throne for himself after exiling Mauvio, and immediately set to work restoring his pagan followers to power. All the Minshan Mosquatlons were declared enemies of the state; and were to be exiles with a price on their heads.

Cindy's entire village was burned to ashes just days after her 204th birthday, by Varikton's royal decree. She was among those observed fleeing the scene; and Varikton put a special price on her head for resembling his daughter Athlia.

What Cindy did not know for certain, however, was that her little sister Sylvia had also survived. Cindy would spend the next several decades searching for her long-lost sister, all the while a horrified witness to the evils of Surface-Dweller history. She left behind a suitor, Kevin Hornter, whom she held with only disdain. Her loneliness without a man mattered little to her; helping the Minshan Ministry of Mosquatlons survive while looking for her sister seemed to matter a whole lot more.

Marriage and distraction

First marriage

Cindy's loneliness finally got the best of her when she turned 249. Ben Lallin, a 29-year-old liquor distiller in Tinnalsey, had stumbled upon an entrance to the Mosquatlon Underground near his house. Cindy had been forced to relocate after Varikton's forces chased most of the Minshan Mosquatlons out of Bulgadia and into other countries. His war with the Aviatets made things even more difficult, as nearly all Mosquatlons were Aviatet targets. This grew even more political and complicated when Aviatet leadership decided to ally itself with Russalian Communists. Cindy had smuggled herself into Antia, and was hiding underground in Tinnalsey. It disturbed her that to be kept out of the sun, she had to kill a few boat workers that were demanding sexual favors in exchange for their cooperation.

Aviatets had followed Cindy all the way to her hiding place, and she found few Mosquatlon allies there as well. Ben was nearly torn to pieces by Aviatets when he condemned their Communist leanings; but Cindy came to his aid. Protecting one another became a necessity; and the couple soon found themselves in love. It was very reluctantly that a minister agreed that they should wed in the dead of night, especially when Cindy had no family to give her away.

In spite Cindy only being able to come out at night, the Lallins were a happily married couple. Cindy made the most of the few hours that they were able to actually spend together, when daylight and work did not separate them. She would sometimes come along with Ben on some of his excursions. However, he owed money to the mob. He began to realize how much he stood to lose when Cindy revealed that she was pregnant. A child that was half-human and half-Mosquatlon had never been attempted before: what would their child be like? It was three years into the marriage, and Cindy was eager to be a mother. However, she still longed to find Sylvia.

When Cindy was 252, Ben was drafted into the military to explore some suspicious activity in Euralpe. He soon found himself in a firefight with a Nazoli Party that was vowing to one day rise to power and restore Galmamy's power and influence in the world. He was gunned down, but not before claiming 16 casualties. Meanwhile, Cindy was at home preparing to give birth within a month. Pregnancy taking its toll, she had a harder time than usual hunting ducks and owls by moonlight. She was weak and hungry, prepared to venture into town and buy the nutrients she'd need in spite the little money she and Ben had left. That's when the mob attacked. Cindy, in her weakened state, was not as able to fight back as she would normally have been. She took a single shotgun blow to the abdomen, killing her baby instantly.

She killed all the mobsters in revenge once she healed from her wounds; and then hunted enough ducks to drink that she was able to hunt down the mob boss. Though her kind strongly discouraged it; she made an example of him by drinking him dry via her proboscises. Word soon got to her via the mail that Ben had died by Nazoli gunfire; and she decided she had to disappear.

Second Marriage and Second Mantithian World War

Cindy finally headed back to Euralpe to confront the new nemesis that had killed her husband, and to begin searching for Sylvia all over again. However, her exploits found her falling for yet another human: Jack Dovery. She initially fell into his arms while needing comfort, as grieving the loss of her unborn son and her first husband proved unbearable. Jack at first took advantage of her willingness to sleep with him; but he felt ashamed soon afterward and promised his love to her. They had known each other for only two years before they were married. Alas, that was when the second Mantithian great war had erupted. Jack entered the Western Theater of war immediately, with predictable results. It somewhat relieved Cindy that her second marriage did not end in the forced abortion of yet another child. Still, she longed to have a child of her own some day.

She finally decided to gather together what remains of the Minshan Mosquatlon Underground, and regroup. She was less-than-impressed that they and the few good Aviatets they had allied with were facing off against an evil alliance, one consisting of Varikton's army and Nazoli Party leader Adelphius Hiltner. Due to the distractions of war, many Minshan Mosquatlons were able to reclaim their homes in Bulgadia that had been lost earlier in the century. A young Mosquatlon that had lost his family soon got the best of Cindy, and she yielded to his motives for her in bed. However, he made it clear when they both awoke that he only wanted one night with her. She vowed not to let another man get so close unless he could prove himself as worthy as her first husband was.

After the war ended, she had to make her way on her own by keeping an eye on evil Aviatets. If any of them raided the surface at night and threatened to expose their existence to mankind, she had to stop them. Surface Bulgadia had already been devastated by the war; they didn't need an insurrection of monsters preying on the public. Varikton and company continued their plotting and scheming, but generally sympathized with Cindy's efforts to keep the Aviatets at bay.

Too Soon For Home

By this point in time, Cindy had attempted to go clean and abandon her sexual conquests. She was involved with a ministry of Mosquatlons, but it was about to relocate yet again due to Varikton forcing them out of their homes. A gang was lurking the Solphia streets, led by Arimov Bitovsky. Arimov, the son of a dentist, had stolen several of his father's UV light curing guns. He had come to be aware of the existence of Mosquatlons, and assumed they were the vampires of legend. He and his gang became obsessed with committing hate crimes against "vampires," and started stalking the streets hoping for the chance to catch one.

Cindy immediately drew their suspicions, and they started chasing her. They caught up with her one evening after she had been forced for three days not to eat anything while battling Aviatets. Weakened, she was in need of duck or owl blood. Arimov and his gang finally surrounded her in the streets and used the curing guns to subdue her. Their goals were to gang-rape and then murder her with their equipment; but Liquidon Ethereteel intervened. He very quickly beat them into submission. He rescued Cindy by taking her to the forest, and then killed some owls for her to feast on. Liquidon and Cindy began a romantic relationship from then on, with Liquidon even providing Cindy with a satellite phone so she could contact him. It also became the beginning of Liquidon's quest to keep an eye open for Sylvia.

Essentials of Nativity

While Pextel and Viola are in Illontin City at a shopping mall, they discover a copy of Mantithian Minshan Writings. It reinforces their existing knowledge of Minshus' conception and birth from the writings of their homeworld. They begin to wonder, however, what else may have gone on.

Meanwhile, Liquidon is with Cindy for the holidays. Rhodney and Oceanoe join him, and he shares with them and Cindy an exchange of Whixtitian versus Mantithian accounts of what happened. They find no contradictions, only different things emphasized, as they piece together the story. Cindy remarks on how Mosquatlon Minshan writings only briefly mention the Mikloche Warrior known as Thestor. However, the mere mention of a Mikloche Warrior in any version of the Minshan Writings, she claims, is a reason why the non-believing fear Liquidon so greatly: He could actually confirm their worst fears about it all being true!

What Sorcery Is This

Liquidon rescues the Voyagers, and finally gets teleported to Bulgadia by Lamdock in the hopes that he won't interfere with Lamdock's plans for the other Voyagers. Liquidon visits with Cindy, and the two are forced to choose whether to marry and abandon their missions; or keep fighting for their individual causes even if it keeps coming between them. Cindy gives Liquidon the resolve to keep fighting; vowing that she will belong to him one day even if she needs a miracle to turn her into a Whiteout. In spite the strong pressure both feel to do so, Liquidon keeps their blossoming romance from turning into full-out sex. Cindy thanks him for his resolve to keep them both pure and focused, and Maurice sends Liquidon back to the other Voyagers as the lover vow to find each other again.

Crepuscular

By this point in time, Maurice has sent the Voyagers to live in Bulgadia. Jerry Frond and Jack Cartel have both stated that they wish to "make peace" with the Crooked Rainbow, even if it means "doing what we can to send the Voyagers home early." Both presidential candidates were punished by the angels, since the only negotiation that the Crooked Rainbow would accept is handing the Voyagers' corpses over to them. Alaina agrees to join the Voyagers in exile, though she finds a few gypsies willing to support her cause and give her shelter.

Liquidon is moved to a hospital in Bulgadia some time after the move, since he is growing sick from the effects of nearing Shell 10. Cindy gets wind that Liquidon has found Sylvia, so the three of them begin spending time together in the hospital. After a Crooked Rainbow mob stalks the Voyagers all the way to Bulgadia, Liquidon was forced to use his powers on them. He returns to the hospital, remaining cautious about his growing powers.

By "Crepuscular," Alaina has discovered Varikton's schemes. She also finds herself being stalked all over Solphia by Nikolai Ripilski. Cindy leaves the hospital as soon as it is safe, and begins hunting Nikolai. Liquidon finally agrees to leave the hospital temporarily, if only to provide backup. Everyone eventually catches up at a storage center near a lake, where Nikolai is about to drink Alaina and end the threat to Varikton's plans. Varikton, realizing his plans are in jeopardy anyway, relocates to another part of the Mosquatlon Underground. Cindy puts up the best fight she can against Nikolai; but he overpowers her in the end. Liquidon finally arrives and finishes Nikolai off, while Cindy takes cover from the sunrise and Alaina explains things to the police.

Qua Locus Poena

Viola's trip to the Valtican conjures up some bad memories of her life in Feltipwa; but she soon finds an ally in Cindy. Meanwhile, a panel of Valtican Mosquatlons abducts Melanie. Rhodney, Viola, and Cindy team up to set things right. They soon find an unlikely ally in the clumsy-but-well-meaning Frederick Powderkov, who accidentally wipes out the most powerful Valtican Mosquatlons when Cindy is overwhelmed. The weaker survivors begin ganging up on Frederick and Cindy, so Rhodney and Viola are forced to take drastic measures. They all soon discover that Melanie's chest symbol was mistaken for a symbol of an ancient witch; and that the whole mess could have been avoided if not for the Valticans' superstitions.

At All Costs

Cindy decides to make the ultimate sacrifice to rescue the Voyagers and Liquidon.

Development

Motivations for character

The Underworld franchise

Cindy originally began as a very shallow parody of Selene in the Underworld movies. However, Kate Beckinsale's character was not very palatable for the Voyagers universe, nor did it seem likely that she could be made a love interest for Liquidon. The decision to include an Underworld parody in Stationery Voyagers at all came after the Dozerfleet founder saw Underworld: Evolution for the first time. Michael and Selene's increased humanity shining through in that film, in spite their becoming more powerful creatures, proved to be an adventure quest that fit all too well with what the Voyagers were already experiencing in their narrative.

Fleshing out Liquidon

Liquidon did not originally have a love interest; but to give him a temporary one in Cindy added depth to the very-centrally-important hero that would have remained absent had he been left to appear indifferent to romantic pursuits.

On top of this, developing Cindy into a whole separate character from her initial "Selene parody" aspect added a touch of drama to the story that was not possible otherwise. A world like our own was made that much more like our own; by having one girl who could walk in both her supernaturally-enhanced one and the mundane. This point is reinforced even more by giving Mosquatlons a lifespan of 800 years.

They are capable of living long enough to be witnesses to nearly a thousand years' worth of human history— long enough to piece together the threads of change and consequence logically from experience that shame the best efforts to do so made by men of shorter lifespans. Therefore, Cindy as an ally of the Voyagers gives them valuable insights to put history—the story's and our own&mash; in a more evocative and moving context than is possible with even the best of Gordon Lomken's materials.

Political insights

Likewise, Cindy's need to walk the line between the ugliness of human politics and that of creature politics makes her struggles more allegorically relevant to readers than what is possible with the Underworld source material that originally inspired her. She both sees firsthand the evils of Paganism trying to suppress Minshanism (Christianity) for what they are, and sees the evils of Secularism when it does the same. She witnesses the barbaric nature of Mosquatlons and Aviatets feuding for supremacy, and the evil in the ideologies they borrow from mankind that keep their feud going. Nationalist Fascism, a concept not unfamiliar to mankind, becomes the new paradigm of Mosquatlon tyranny when the old paradigms no longer suffice them intellectually. Likewise, their Aviatet rivals are seduced to the similarly-evil Communist model.

Statism in all its ugly forms is shown to be just as destructive to societies of the fantastic as it is to societies of the mundane. Cindy's homeworld's fantastic history is burdened by the same conflicts that have burdened mankind for centuries. In Underworld, it is easy to dismiss the vampire-lycan conflict as being "their thing," with no bearing at all on human fate and responsibility in the universe. With the Mosquatlon-Aviatet conflict in the Voyagers' universe, there is no such opportunity for the audience to dodge intellectual responsibility in regards to understanding the pitfalls of political ideologies.

The bigger picture

This need to explore the mundane in both mundane and fantastic terms at the exact same time is not just limited to Cindy herself; but to the entire feud that she inherits. To make this more explicit, and add a pinch of originality to the story; the popular "vampire vs. werewolf" mythos needed drastic revision. Bats were ruled out, since they have both been overused and since there are so few of them that require blood for a diet. Mosquitoes, however, are relentless parasites all over the world that require blood to feed their young. Also, a vampire with proboscides has not been attempted very often; thus adding an original twist to a very popular literary cliche.

Werewolves, for all their savagery, did not seem to fit the picture at all. Wolves do not eat mosquitoes, so there is no symbolism in the two sides battling in a continuation of natural predator-prey relations. Various species of birds around the world, however, do eat mosquitoes quite regularly. Therefore, Aviatets seemed a logical choice symbolically to represent a legitimate threat to Mosquatlons. It took some effort to retool the "Bat vs. Wolf" combat in pop culture and reconstruct it into the "Bird vs. Mosquito" conflict, but by no means was this retool impossible.

Clothing style

While Mosquatlons clung to a medieval clothing fashion for many years, they began to adapt to Surface-Dweller fashions around the time that Mantith experienced its world wars. Cindy's bomber jacket is really nothing unique: it was designed to be a typical World-War-II-era jacket. She even tells Liquidon that, if not for her intolerance of sunlight, she had always dreamed of flying an airplane. Her hairstyle, likewise, reveals that Mosquatlons took a strong liking to the 1940's. In fact, The Rocketeer was used as a strong visual reference when coming up with Mosquatlon culture.

A combination of vampire with Nazi culture both added to the epic significance of Varikton's villainy and to the dashing heroics of Cindy's quest to see her world forever rid of his influence. Likewise, it makes their culture more time-period-oriented and classic in flavor; a comeback against Underworld using a pop-action (and arguably fetishist) black leather aesthetic for its vampires. At the same time, choosing a World War II and Diesel Punk aesthetic for Mosquatlons divorces them from being completely 21st-century modernist like Twilight, and avoids the need for a Dracula fashion that would deprive them of all credibility.

Physique

Cindy is described as keeping herself "in fairly reasonably good shape." Due to the fact that Mosquatlons can live between 8 and 10 times as long as surface humans, Cindy is able to look believably like a 29-37-year-old woman in spite being 300 years old.

Personality

It was decided very early on that, while Cindy would be a capable and competent fighter and gun-wielder, that she would take little to no personal delight in causing suffering and death to others. She would fight and kill Aviatets for her own survival. But no matter how much loss she suffered at the hands of any creature; she would resist developing the sociopathic tendencies of the material that inspired her.

In addition to giving her a little more empathy, she was also imbued with a mild sense of humor. Finally, she was made to value love and sacrifice over petty victory and petty revenge. Her desire for love and family with both her husbands, and even visible with her one-night's stand; speak to her desire for companionship and family. Liquidon proves no exception to the rule, although she understands in his case why they can never indulge in sexual intercourse the way she could with her previous lovers. However, she is also not a complete idiot: she knows that nothing good can come from Kevin nor his advances. She also knows that she must remain somewhat alert at all times, ready to kill in an instant to protect herself and her loved ones.

Her empathy ends up being her most redeeming quality: it is what compels her to beg to God to give her what would have otherwise been Liquidon's fate. This compels her to self-sacrifice, knowing full well that she's absorbed a power that could destroy her soul if only she could control it. She also knows she has consumed a power that could destroy many living things, whether she controls it or not, and that she risks claiming that many lives in the process of ending her own life to destroy that power. Upon becoming a Glowmatti, her farewell wishes to Liquidon and regards to the beauty of light she is surrounded by speak of another inspiration.

Cindy rejoices at the sight of becoming what she had to hide from her entire life, right before crashing into Mauvio's monster head-first and exploding. She has, in this sense, become much like Jean Grey in X-Men: The Animated Series. In that show, Jean (possessed by the Phoenix) makes a similar comment about the beauty of light around her, right before journeying to the sun's core, as The Phoenix Saga wrapped up. Both women were also willing to sacrifice their own lives to spare the world from a corrupted source of power that endangered all life.

Cindy's religious life is designed to reveal that she is of a sect similar to Catholicism in its traditions, though she does not endorse all such traditions. She takes note that Liquidon bears more of a "Protestant slant," although this confuses him as Whititian history never experienced a Protestant Reformation.

Cindy vs Candi Levens on sexual ethics

Cindy's marriages were also the result of inspiration from another source. However, this one remains within Dozerfleet Comics. The efforts to reinvent The Gerosha Chronicles in Comprehensive Gerosha resulted in a deeper exploration of the loneliness and desperation of Candi's search for her significant other; and to her fears of them all being doomed to an untimely end as one of many motivations for both her heroic actions and her poor sexual decisions.

The loss of Donte led to Candi slipping into depression. The fear of losing Denny led to Candi's eloping with him. The loss of Denny and Angie led to Candi being vulnerable to Jack "the Jackrabbit" as Jack made his advances on her. Her hope of finding Donte alive kept Candi from giving Jack everything he wanted, though her honor was still compromised. The desire to give Donte a legacy before he actually died led to Candi seducing Donte. Her guilt over what she'd done to compromise Donte's honor led to one of her many motivations to marry him. Ultimately, Candi is doomed to die at the hands of Arfaas loyalists, her powers suppressed and her neck on a chopping block.

Cindy, with a few similar personality and power issues as Candi, was in danger of going down the same road. Yet, Cindy manages to die a more dignified death, in spite dying while unmarried and in spite her redemption taking longer. All Candi had to do to find redemption was marry Donte. Cindy became susceptible to her second husband's whims after the despair she felt at losing her first husband and her unborn son. Yet, marrying the man that seduced her did not earn her redemption, as Cindy's calling has proven to be an even higher one than Candi's.

Rather, it is when Cindy and Liquidon agree to sacrifice their chances to be together to fulfill their true callings that they find their (societal) redemption: Cindy from her sexual past; and Liquidon from the murders he is both directly and indirectly responsible for. They are under almost as much pressure to succumb to one another's bodies as Candi and Donte were before their wedding. And yet, Cindy and Liquidon answered to the higher calling of abstinence. This is in spite the fact that both knew there would be little reward in their first lives for their integrity (Liquidon's all along, but Cindy's regained.) Cindy would still have to lay down her life; and Liquidon would be an old, childless bachelor.

It may seem unfair; that Candi and Donte who failed to be sexual role models got to enjoy a lifetime of each other and raise children together that made them proud, whereas Liquidon and Cindy found only ruin. Both couples were eventually spared from damnation as well. However, Candi also lived with a lifetime of shame and regret of the sort that neither Liquidon nor Cindy had to endure. (Cindy never had to tell her unborn son about her indiscretions. Candi had to confess to Frank one day the nature of how he was conceived, and why he shouldn't imitate his mother's example.)

Biography

Both to keep Cindy a relevant witness to Voyager-verse history and to keep some of the Underworld parody intact, Cindy had to be designed as being at least 300 years old but with the physique of a woman no older than 30. This is half the age of Selene, whom she initially was based on. Herephin's work on the Rilna (Rila) monastery is both a reference to the construction of William's prison in Underworld: Evolution and to the Dozerfleet founder in real life visiting the Rila Monastery in Bulgaria in 1997.

The part of Cindy was also written for one who would have witnessed the end of Prohibition, as well as the horrors of World War II and of any wars happening in Europe at the same time as the American Civil War. Cindy's longing for sexual union with Liquidon, especially when Lamdock makes Liquidon temporarily human, also made more sense in that she was seeking a replacement for a union she would have lost long ago. It also made more sense that a woman aged at 300 years would have been married at least once before, and lived in multiple parts of the world.